Holding device for laundry pressing machines



Junev 16, 1942. l R. L. cusTER 2,286,348

HOLDING DEVICE FOR LAUNDRY PRESSING MACHINES Filed June l5, 1940 INVENTOR ATTO RNEY Patented June 16, 1942 HOLDING DEVICE FOR LAUNDRY PRESSING MACHINES Ralph L. Custer, Garden City, N. Y. Application June 15, 1940, Serial No. 340,688

6 Claims.

This invention relates to laundry presses and more particularly to shirt ironing machines.

In accordance with the present laundry practice, it is customary to provide a pivoted, flexible attachment or strap across the end of the laundry press or buck to clamp the tails of a shirt after the shirt has been stretched in ironing position. The strap is operated by complicated controls. This practice not alone involves time-consuming operations in the manipulation of the controls for clamping and unclamping the shirt-holding strap, but also involves the more important and undesirable feature of leaving the imprint of the strap across the shirt, which is very noticeable after the ironing operation is completed. A further undesirable feature in the use of the present laundry press is that the flexible strap previously referred to has to be withdrawn from the buck before laundry work, other than shirt ironing, can be performed.

Accordingly it is an object of this invention to eliminate the undesirable features of the present laundry press by providing a simple and eilcient arrangement for holding the tails of a shirt after the shirt has been stretched in ironing position on the laundry press or ironing machine, without leaving any objectionable mark 'or imprint upon the shirt.

A further object is to provide a holding arrangement of the above character which may remain in permanent position on the buck regardless of the material which is to be pressed.

These and further objects will be apparent from the following description, when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which certain embodiments of the invention are illustrated.

Referring to the drawing, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the pressing machine embodying this invention;

Fig. 2 is a section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the buck, the associated press-head elements not being illustrated for the sake of clearness;

Fig, 4 is a sectional View taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a plan view showing a modified form of the shirt-tail-holder per se in which a plurality of the holding'elements are illustrated;

Fig. 6 is an end elevation of Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken on the line 1-1 of Fig. 5; and

Fig. 8 is a partly broken away plan View of the shirt-tail-holder.

The invention as disclosed in the drawing illustrates a conventional form of pressing machine upon which the articles to be steamed, brushed, pressed or stretched, may be placed. This machine includes an ironing table or buck 5 which is supported upon a suitable frame 6. A press head 1, is pivotally connected in accordance with well known laundry construction, to be actuated toward and from the buck. The buck isshown as having padding 8 applied thereto, and upon this is laid flannel 9 and a cover cloth III. A drawstring II, as shown in Fig. 4, may be applied to the cover cloth to hold it and its associated elements tightly on the buck.

The buck 5 may be generally rectangular in form and on one end thereof a neck band holder I2 may be provided. A tail holder I3 is positioned near the opposite end of the buck and extends transversely thereof. This tail holder lies in fixed position on the buck and, while it is primarily used in connection with the holding of shirt tails, it presents no interference to other types of laundry work, as will presently appear. The holder includes an element which is commonly known as card clothing. This element comprises a mat consisting of a number of layers of cloth or suitable fabric I4 (Fig. 7) which is thickly studded with very line and thin steel needles I5 which may ber alined in longitudinal rows. These needles or prongs project upwardly, terminating slightly above the plane of the face of the cover cloth and passing through a cutout portion of the padding 8 and through the flannel 9.

n The needles or prongs provide points on which the tail of a shirt may be impaled to maintain it in position upon the buck while being iron. The spring supports for the needles furnish sufcient upward pressure so that, by merely stretching the shirt-tail over the needles, they will readily pass through the cloth. The large number of closely spaced projecting needles pierce through the interstices of the material to be ironed without damaging the fabric. Only rarely does the needle pass through a thread of the fabric itself, and when this does happen the thread is not broken or substantially damaged. Consequently, the pull which is exerted by the needles when the fabric is stretched, is not concentrated at a few localized points, but is distributed all over a considerable area of the cloth, so that no damage is done by a particular needle.

The rows of needles are reenforced and provented from becoming laterally displaced by a member I6 (Fig. 8). Said member has narrow slots through which the needles extend, so that the metal between the rows of needles serves to back and reenforce them. This member I6 lies within a longitudinal slot provided in a metal plate I'I which lies in transverse position on the buck over the cut-out portion of the padding 8. A channel plate I8 lies beneath this slot, and its horizontal overturned edges provide a seat for the marginal edges of the member I6. The strips of fabric I4 carrying the needles I5 are held within the channel plate I8 and this plate, with its contained fabric and the needles carried thereby, is held in an extended upward position by tension,

This tension is exerted by conical-shaped springs I9 which press upwardly against the bottom of the channel plate I8 and are mounted upon a bracket 2li. In the present instance two of these brackets are shown in connection with each channel plate, as shown in Fig. 6. The brackets are provided with outwardly extending lugs having operations through which screws extend to fasten the brackets to the plate I'I. If desired these openings may be in the form of slots to permit the adjustment of the brackets and associated elements. The transversely extending plate Il may be provided with any suitable number of units comprising channel plates and their needle-carrying elements. In Fig. 1 these spring-held units are shown as being two in number, while in Fig. 6 four such units are illustrated. As shown in Fig. 6 straps may be attached to the ends of the plate Il and these straps may be bent beneath the edges of the buck and connected by a spring 2| to maintain them in position.

In the operation of the present improved arrangement, the operator arranges and stretches the shirt on the cover cloth IU of the buck, attaching the neck band on the holder I2 ani pulling the tail portion so the shirt lies in a proper smooth position to iron. While the shirt is held in this position with one hand, the tail is then impaled upon the needles by pressure from the fingers of the other hand, and thus held in stretched position while the press-head is applied under heavy pressure to iron the shirt.

When the press-head is thus applied the needles are pressed down against the tension of the springs I9, so that the needles no longer project above the upper surface of the tail of the shirt. The shirt is now held in its stretched position by the intense pressure between the press-head and the buck. When the press-head is released and lifted, the springs again push the needles up through the fabric of the shirt tail and hold it in stretched position. Consequently, the press-head may be applied to the buck several times to complete the pressing operation,

without permitting the shirt to become disarranged while being pressed. The shirt may be readily released after being ironed and no visible indication is present on the shirt in the form of objectionable marks such as is the case in the use of present laundry ironing machines.

While there is shown and described herein certain preferred forms of the invention by Way of illustration, it is to be understood that it is not limited or confined to the precise details of construction herein described and delineated, as modification and variation may be made within the scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry press including a buck and a pivoted press-head co-operating therewith for ironing shirts and the like, a pad mounted upon said buck to provide a yielding soft surface, a cut-out portion in said pad extending transversely of said buck near one end thereof, a shirt-tail-holder mounted upon the buck and lying within said cut-out portion, said tail-holder including a plurality of separate spring-actuated units having needles extending above the normal upper surface of said buck and through material being ironed on the buck to hold it in stretched position, limiting means to prevent each of said units from rising above the level of the upper surface of said pad while permitting each unit to be depressed separately, said limiting means being so formed that no part thereof projects above the upper surface of said pad, said needle-carrying units being separately depressible under the pressure exerted by the application of the press-head to the buck so that the tops of said needles will be pressed against the lowered press-head and still impale the material to be ironed, and said needles being automatically restored to extensible positions upon the withdrawal of the press-head.

2. A laundry press including a buck and a pivoted press-head co-operating therewith for ironing shirts and the like, a pad mounted upon said buck to provide a yielding soft surface and having a cut-out portion extending transversely of said buck near one end thereof, a shirt-tailholder including a slotted plate adapted to lie on said pad over the cut-out portion, a plurality of spring-actuated units mounted beneath said plate and lying within said cut-out portion, said units including card clothing having vertically positioned needles extending above the slots in said plate and through the material being ironed on the buck to hold it in stretched position, said needles being depressible under the pressure exerted by the application of the presshead to the buck, and being automatically restored to extensible positions upon the withdrawal of the press-head.

3. A laundry press including a buck and a pivoted press-head co-operating therewith for ironing shirts and the like, a pad mounted upon said buck to provide a yielding soft surface and having a cut-out portion extending transversely of said buck near one end thereof, a shirt-tailholder including a slotted plate adapted to lie on said pad over the cut-out portion, a plurality of spring-actuated units mounted beneath said plate and lying within said cut-out portion, said units including card clothing having vertically positioned needles extending above the slots in said plate and through the material being ironed on the buck to hold it in stretched position, reenforcing members for said needles lying within the slots of said slotted plate and having openings through which said needles extend, said needles being depressible under the pressure exerted by the application of the press-head to the buck, and being automatically restored to extensible positions upon the withdrawal of the .press-head.

4. A laundry press including a buck and a pivoted press-head co-operating therewith for ironing shirts and the like, a pad mounted upon said buck to provide a yielding soft surface, a cut-out portion in said pad extending transversely of said buck near one end thereof, a shirttail-holder mounted upon the buck andlying within said cut-out portion, said tail-holder including a plurality of separate units each having needles projecting therefrom, individual springs for each of said units to press them upward so that their needles normally project above the upper surface of the buck, limiting means to prevent the upper surfaces of said units from rising above the level of said upper surface of the buck, said limiting means having no part extending above said level, said needles normally extending above the upper surface` of said buck and through the material being ironed thereon, said needle-carrying units being separately and individually depressible under the pressure exerted by the application of the press-head to the buck, so that under the action of said springs the tops of the needles on all of said units will be pressed against the lowered press-head and still impale the material to be ironed, and said needles being automatically restored to extensible positions upon the withdrawal of the press-head.

5. A laundry press including a buck having a convex upper surface, a pivoted press-head cooperating therewith for ironing shirts and the like, a pad mounted upon said buck to provide a yielding soit surface, a cut-out portion in said pad extending transversely of said buck near one end thereof, a shirt-tail-holder mounted upon the buck and lying within said cut-out portion, said tail-holder including a plurality of separate spring actuated units having needles extending above the normal upper convex surface of said buck and through the material being ironed on said buck to hold it in stretched position, said individual needle-carrying units being mounted Aso that their upper surfaces co-act to lie in a convex path conforming to the surface of said buck, said needle-carrying units being separately depressible under the pressure exerted by the application of the press-head to the buck so that the tops of said needles will be pressed against the lowered press-head and still impale the materialto be ironed, and said needles being automatically retsored to extensible positions upon the withdrawal of the press-head.

6. A laundry press including a buck and a pivoted press-head, a pad mounted on said buck and having a cut-out portion near one end, a tailholder including a slotted plate overlying the cut-out portion of said pad, a movable member spring pressed against said plate, said movable member having a body of yieldable material With rows of pins imbedded therein and projecting through the slot in said plate, and solid material of substantially the same thickness as said plate mounted above said yieldable material in the space alongside each row of pins to back and reinforce said pins so that they will not become bent when pressed down by said press-head.

RALPH L. CUSTER. 

